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19 killed, 47 wounded in attacks in Iraq

Bomb and gunfire attacks on Wednesday killed a total of 19 people and wounded 47 across Iraq, amid the surge in violence that threatens to bring the country back to widespread bloodshed, Xinhua reported.

In northern Iraq, five soldiers, including an officer, were shot dead and four others wounded when gunmen attacked their bus in al-Shura area, just south of the city Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a local police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In a separate incident, a suicide bomber drove his explosive- laden truck into the entrance of an army base in western Mosul and blew it up, the source said.

It was immediately known how many soldiers were killed or wounded, but the blast wounded five civilians, the source added.

Meanwhile, a roadside bomb struck a police patrol in the western part of Mosul, damaging a police vehicle and wounding four policemen aboard, he said.

Near Baghdad, a suicide bomber wearing explosive vest blew himself up near an army vehicle in Abu Ghraib area, some 25 km west of the capital, killing one soldier and wounding three, a police officer anonymously told Xinhua.

In addition, a civilian was killed and another wounded when unidentified gunmen opened fire on them in al-Amil district in the southwestern part of Baghdad, the source said.

Earlier in the day, 12 people were reportedly killed and 30 wounded in separate violent attacks in central and northern Iraq, including a bomb explosion outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad that killed six people and wounded 18.

Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in five years, raising fears that the latest bloodshed is bringing the country back to a full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.